THE PRINCE'S PRESENTS.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 603, 25 May 1876, Page 3

THE PRINCE'S PRESENTS.

World, March 15.) There is astoim brewing in India over the Prinee's visit. The small cloud is apparent ifom the following remarks extracted from the Bombay Gazette, of February 18th. The native- are openly remarking upon the enormous value (half a million, it is said, be within the mark) of the gifts received by the Prince from rajahs, and the shabbiness and peculiar nature (chitily snuff-boxes, small fire engines, garden-pumps, and copies of De Rous.selet's book on India) of the gifts made by him in return . " We observe with regret a paragraph going the round of the Anglo-Indian newspapers to the effect that the Prince of Wales will take away from India presents to the value of fully half a million sterliug. We are aware that in some native journals certain remarks have been freely made with regard to the character of the Prince's tour through India, and lately the immense riches which have been thrust upon him have become even in the bnziars a fruitful and bitter subject of conversation. When people see such news put iuto print they know precisely what it means. Ttie.y know that it points to the insinuation of a public scandal. They feel that it has b. j < n invented to injure the. character of the British rulers of India for disinterestedness and philanthropy. It is a pity that such paragraphs have found their way into print ; but it is stillj more to b ■ regretted that the slightest cause should ever have been given to any cass of persoos to believe acd say openly tl at the Prince of Wales's tour in India has bacu concocted with the deliberate intention ol swelling his private means. Before the P'iriee arrived in this country, stories preceded him about his intention to use the liberality of the natives of India to liquidate a portion of his private debts. In some quarters, not very friendly to the British Government, these tales have b?en believed and circulated with all the garniture of malice. Sneering iuquiries with respect to the value of the preseuts given by his Royal Highness in exchange for the splendid gifts which have marked almost every step of his Indian tour are already beiug maie. How can these inquiries be answered.' If answered at all, it can only be admitt d frankly that the Prince's return presents are vastly inferior to those he has received ; if they are not answered, then the adverse critics of the Royal progress use the ominoas silence as an argument in favour alike of Uieir iosinuatiins and assertions. It i.; notorious that the native princes have been vieing with each other in thrusting presents of great value upon the Prince. No list of these presents has been published ; very probably it never will be. We kuow that there is a reluctance to give auy information to the public upon the subject The special correspondent of the Times, who may be regarded as the recipient of all the secrets connected with the Prince's tour, says very little of the presents in his letters If the English public are guided by these demi official communications, they will think that the Prince has been receiving valuable gifts only here and there, and that the national grant would be sufficient after all to enable his Royal Highness to cope, as became the dignity of his rank, with the the generosity of the natives of India. Bur. on this point the letters of the limes correspondent are apt to be misleading. He writes of the presents in general terms, and occa sionally mentions one of particular excel lence ; but he never enters into details, and never attempts to give an approximate value of the presents—not one, but heaps—which almost every native chief of any importance lias laid at the Prince's feet. But let it not be understood that the correspondent is altogether innocent of the importance of the part which present giving and taking plays in the Prince's tour. In a long telegr.m dated Lahore, the 23rd January, he thinks it necessary to explain that ' there is no foun dation for the statement that any double set of presents has been made, or that some persons have made and received gifts twice over.' This explanation may be correct, so far as the giving of double presents by the Prince i 3 ■;oncerncd, but we doubt whether it is correct in the other particulars. For instance, is it not the fact that the maj >rity of the •hiefs who were present at the reception of the Prince of Wales in Calcutta, and who were afterwards visited by 11. li 11. in their own territories, presented valuable gifts to him not only in Calcutta, but eubsequcutly in their own palaces? In the case of the Maharajahs of Cashmere and Jcypore, there can be no doubt whatever about this. It is perfectly well known by this time that the Maharajah of Cashmere gave the Prince a vast quantity of exceedingly valuable presents at Jummoo. The room in which the presents were placed in the palace overhanging the River Tavee has already been described as filled with trays with piles of Cashmere shawls upon them, gold and silver silvers, goblets, and solid silver tea and eoffee sets, to aay nothing of Cashmere shawl tents with silver supports—all presents for the Triuce. The correspondent of the Times himself alludes to the Prince receiving at Jummoo ' a sword worth at the lowest calculation £IO,OOO. It is studded with precious stonrs from hilt to point.' So that with this sword, the shawls, the gold and silver work, and the hundred and one other varieties of gifts presented by the Maharajah, the Prince of Wales must have been very richly endowed indeed in Jummoo. Again, in Jeypore the Prince received a number of valuable presents, one of which was a gold snuff box covered with diamonds, and the other a palanquin made of gold brocade. It would thus appear as if double sets of presents were after all given to the Priuce by certain Indian potentates. This is what the natives are saying, wonderiug why it was done. This is what the Times correspondent has contradicted, although apparently he has unconsciously borne wituess to the truth of what he has essayed to deny. " We think that now that the subject of the presents to the Prince has come to be openly talked about in newspapers and in the bazaars, and significant calculations published of the amount sterling he will be able to realise in London from the fruits of his Indian tour, it will be obvious to all who have the love, of the British Constitution and the honor of the Royal family at heart that it is a thousand times a pity it was not peremptorily arranged before his Royal Highness set a foot in India that he should accept no presents except those which the means at his disposal would enable him to equal in the value of his return gifts. We do not- of course, belitve the absurd stories about the Prince and his debts, but India unfortunately is a countiy where everybody is not of the'eatne opinion, and with those who J are fond of creating mischief between the j rulers and the ruled these tales will find J

ready crerience. They will be sown broadcast over the face of the country ; they will be iimplifiH in t.hHr progress ; they will eventually have results calculated to injure ihc) ctiaiacter ot the permanent, remembrances in India of the Prince's visit."

This is plain speaking by one of the most, respectable Anglo-Indian journals. As the majority of the great chiefs who have given splendid presents have some grievance or other ngainst the British Government (Scindiab, for instance, would move heaveu and eatthto get back Gwalior Fort, which ir. now in charge of European troops), it is obviously indiscrete for one occupying the position of the Prince of Wales to accept y:ifts totally out of proportion to those he is able to return.